Australians prefer to stay neutral in any China-Japan conflict

Australians see no reason to side with the United States or Japan in any future conflict with China, overwhelmingly believing the best strategy is to remain neutral.

Even faced with a personal plea from US President Barack Obama on the basis of the US military alliance, more than two-thirds of Australians want Prime Minister Tony Abbott to stay out of a regional war.

The results of a new poll conducted by the Australia-China Relations Institute comes as the government's prepares to spend billions on sophisticated submarines, and Japan is heavily tipped as a supplier.

The polling research is focused on Australians' attitude towards disputed territory in the East China Sea, which Japan claims as the Senkaku islands but China calls Diaoyu islands.

Defence analysts see the feud as a critical flashpoint in the region. In December Japan complained that two Chinese warships had come within 70 kilometres of the uninhabited but resource-rich islands.

Former foreign minister Bob Carr, director of the institute based at Sydney's University of Technology, said Australians supported the US alliance but did not want it invoked in a conflict between China and Japan.

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President Obama said in April during a visit to Tokyo that the US defence relationship with Japan would extend to the islands. But the poll also showed that only 40 per cent of Australians were aware of the territorial dispute between the Asian powers and 67 per cent were unaware of the US commitment.

Asked what Australia should do if an armed conflict broke out over the islands, 71 per cent of respondents said "remain neutral", and only15 per cent said "support the US and Japan". Only 4 per cent said "support China" and 9 per cent remained unsure.

The national poll was conducted in December, with interviews of 1000 adults online by UMR Research.

More than half the respondents said the ANZUS Treaty did not mean Australia would "have to take sides and support Japan in a conflict with China over these islands".

The officialposition is not to take sides in the dispute and call for international maritime laws to be respected.

But the government drew heavy criticism from Beijing in 2013 after protesting China's decision to impose an air defence zone in the East China Sea, following Prime Minister Tony Abbott's description of Japan as Australia's "closest friend in Asia".

The government is preparing a defence blueprint, expected to be released this year and to maintain a Labor commitment to acquire fleet of 12 "future submarines" - twice as many as the existing Collins class boats.

But there is fierce debate over whether to build the new subs locally in Adelaide or buy existing models from overseas.

Former defence minister David Johnston - a casualty of the cabinet reshuffle in December after complaining the government-owned shipbuilder could not be trusted to "build a canoe" - had said in June that the ANZUS Treaty would not apply to the disputed islands.

Mr Carr said it was striking that there had been no controversy about the comment at the time, compared with the 2004 political fracas caused when then foreign minister Alexander Downer said Australia would not feel obligated under the alliance to help US forces defend Taiwan.